Field
Embodiments relate generally to nanoparticle fabrication methodology. More particularly, embodiments relate to nanoparticle fabrication methodology with enhanced performance.
Description
By virtue of their size-tunable properties and facile solution processing, colloidal semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs), or quantum dots, have garnered intensive research interest as building blocks for many diverse applications that span from optoelectronics to biological imaging. The successful commercialization of promised NP technologies however hinges critically on the development of scalable fabrication methods to provide technologically significant quantities of high-quality NPs (i.e., NPs that have monodisperse particle size and uniform particle composition).
In a laboratory setting, monodisperse colloidal NPs are typically produced by a hot-injection method, in which organic-phase reagents are rapidly injected and mixed at high temperatures (>200° C.) and reacted for a short duration (<10 min). This hot-injection method has played a key role in advancing NP science by providing access to a broad library of NP sizes, shapes, and compositions. Unfortunately, high-quality NPs produced in the laboratory by hot-injection result from small-scale reactions (roughly <100 mg yield). A key barrier to scaling up hot-injection methods is the stringent demand for rapid precursor mixing required by the rapid reaction kinetics. For larger reactor volumes mixing is slower, which introduces obvious impediments to reproducibility and control. Moreover, there is a need for efficient synthesis methods to enable economical fabrication at scale that produce generally high quality NPs with comparatively high (i.e., >70%) yields.
In light of the foregoing, desirable are NP fabrication methods and fabrication materials, such as but not limited to quantum dot NP fabrication methods and fabrication materials, that provide enhanced NP fabrication conversion quantity capability and compositional uniformity capability.